Home Invasion Robbery Suspect to Seek Reduced Bail

A man suspected in December’s home-invasion robbery of a 90-year-old Rossmoor woman is expected to ask for his bail to be reduced today.

Tyler James Compton, 23, of Long  Beach, remains is custody at the Orange County jail, unable to meet the $210,000 bail amount set for him. He is scheduled for a bail review hearing today.

Compton was arrested in December after an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy recognized him from a sketch artist’s drawing of the robbery suspect.

After the sketch was released, the deputy thought it resembled the suspect in a case in Sunset Beach, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino, adding that the man has a history of narcotics charges.

The Rossmoor attack began around 11 a.m. one morning in December, when the woman stepped outside her Weatherby Road home to retrieve a newspaper

"She uses a cane and they came up behind her, put a gun at her throat, took her back inside the house and said, 'Sit down and don't look at me,' " according to her son, who asked to be identified only as Jim.

The robbers tied the woman to a chair, covered her face with a towel and ransacked every room in the house, Amormino said.

The robbers also "physically ripped her jewelry off her," tearing her blouse and popping off buttons in the process.

Police have been investigating a possible link between the Rossmoor home-invasion robbery and similar crimes in Tustin and Cypress. Investigators suspect the robbers may have accosted two other elderly victims there. In the Tustin case, an 88-year-old woman was robbed after getting money from her bank on Nov. 22.

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